#THE SHORE NUISANCES (BOMBAY AND KOTABA) ACT, 1853 

##ACT NO. XI OF1853 

[Passed on the 15th July,1853.] 

1. *Empowers the Collector, & c. to require the removal of Nuisances, &c. in the harbor, &c. and in 
default to abate them himself.*

2,  3,  4,  *Authorizes  the  proprietor  of  the  Nuisance  on  receipt  of  notice  from  Collector  to  apply  by 
petition to Supreme Court, to stop proceedings of Collector, &c. (3) the onus probandi to lie on petitioner 
to  prove  his  alleged  right  :  (4)  petition  to  be  presented  within  a  month,  except  under  special 
circumstances.*

5. *Prescribes mode of proceeding in case of no petition being presented or of petition being decided 
against petitioner.*

7. *Empowers Collector to sell materials of encroachment.*

8. *Save rights of E.I. Co. as trustees for the Crown, &c.*

9. *Defines the term “high water mark.”*

Schedule. 1. Notice. 2. Warrant.

An Act to facilitate the removal of Nuisances and Encroachments below High-water Mark in the Islands 
of Bombay and Colaba. 

Whereas there is a large sea-shore in the Islands of Bombay and Colaba, and it is expedient, with a 
view to the safe Navigation of the Harbour of Bombay, and to the public interests generally, to facilitate 
the removal of nuisances, obstructions and enroachments below high-water mark in the said Harbour, or 
upon or about the shores of the said Islands; it is enacted as follows:— 

I. It  shall  be  lawful  for  the  Collector  of  Land  Revenue  at  Bombay  to  give  notice  requiring  the 
removal  of  any  nuisance,  obstruction  or  encroachment  anywhere  below  high-water  mark  in  the  said 
Harbour of Bombay, or upon or about the shore of the said Islands;such notice shall be given by affixing 
the same in some conspicuous place on or near to the encroachment, obstruction or nuisance complained 
of,  and  by  publication  thereof  in  the  Bombay  Government  Gazette,  andshall  State  that,  unless  the 
nuisance, obstruction or encroachment be removed or abated within one month, the same will be removed 
or abated by the said Collector;such notice may be in the Form No. 1, in the Schedule to this Act annexed, 
or to the like effect. 

II. If any person shall deny the right of the said Collector to effect such abatement or  removal, he 
shall, within one month after such notice shall have been given as aforesaid, apply to the Supreme Court 
of Judicature at Bombay by petition, setting forth the grounds of his alleged right and praying that the said 
Collector may be restrained from causing such abatement or removal; andthe said Court may thereupon 
(on the petitioner’s giving sufficient security for costs), fix a time for hearing and adjudicating upon such 
petition, and given such directions, and make such orders as the said Court may think just, and the said 
Court  may  also  make  an  order  for  restraining  the  alleged  nuisance,  obstruction  or  encroachment  from 
being extended, or from being abated or removed by the said Collector, until after adjudication upon the 
said petition, or the dismissal thereof for want of prosecution.

III. Upon  the  hearing  of  every  such  petition,  the  onus  of  proving  the  alleged  right  shall  be  on  the 
petitioner. 

IV. No person shall be allowed, after the expiration of such period of one month, to present any such 
petition as aforesaid, unless on satisfactory accounting to the said Court for the delay. 

V.  If  no  such  petition  shall  be  presented  within  the  said  period  of  one  month,  or  if  the  same  be 
presented and determined against the right of the petitioner, or be dismissed for want of prosecution, it 
shall  be  lawful  for  the  Collector  to  cause  such  abatement  or  removal  as  aforesaid,  by  any  person  or 
persons to  be  authorized by  warrant under  his  hand, andsuch  warrant  may  be  in  the  Form  No.  2  in  the 
Schedule to this Act annexed, or to the like effect; andthe said Collector, and any person acting under his 
warrant,  shall  not  be  answerable  for  any  damage  unavoidably  occasioned  in  the  removal  of  any  such 
nuisance, obstruction or encroachment. 

VI. The said Collector may sell the materials of any encroachment or obstruction removed under this 
Act, and may apply the proceeds of sale in or towards payment of the expenses of the removal, and, if any 
surplus shall remain, the same be forfeited, and be paid and applied in such manner as the Governor of 
Bombay in Council shall direct. 

VII. Nothing in this Act shall prejudice or affect the rights of the East India Company as trustees for 
the Crown in any part of the said Harbour, or of the sea-shore of the said Islands, or preclude or interfere 
with any such proceedings, civil or criminal, for abating such nuisances and encroachments as aforesaid, 
as might have been had if this Act had not been passed. 

VIII. The words “high-water mark” in this Act shall mean the ordinary line of high-water at monsoon 
tides. 



##SCHEDULE 

###FORM NO. 1. 

Form No. 1. 

NOTICE is  hereby  given  by  the  Collector  of  Land-revenue  in  Bombay,  under  Act  XI.  of  1853,  that 
(describe the encroachment) is to be removed or abated within one month from the date hereof; otherwise 
the  same  will  be  removed  or  abated  by  the  said  Collector  under  the  authority  of  the  said  Act.Dated 
the         day of in the year of our Lord 


(Signature of Collector.) 

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Form No. 2. 

This  Warrant,  granted  by  the  Collector  of  Land-revenue  in  Bombay,  under  Act  XI.  of  1853,  is  to 
authorize                           of                     to remove (describe encroachment). 

Dated    


(Signature of Collector.)

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